By Tim Callanan
ABC News, 9 Apr 23
For those with a keen mind for history, the recent Chinese spy
balloon controversy may have reawakened some distant memories
of Australias Cold War-era balloon program.
While it was officially secret, everyone knew about
it.
More than 60 years ago, Australia and the United States launched
the Hibal (High Altitude Balloon) project as a way of keeping tabs
on weapons developments in other countries.
Not by flying over them, but by testing the air at extremely
high altitudes.
It was a bit like sticking your nose out of the top window of
your house to smell what the people three doors down were
cooking.
The Americans figured the air from nuclear testing sites in the
Pacific would waft across to Australia, carrying tell-tale
particles with it.
Steven Thorn worked on the program in its early years and has
since written his own book on Hibal, which was based in the
regional Victorian city of Mildura.
The Americans were sniffing at other peoples weapons. They were
interested in the French [nuclear testing] out in the Pacific,
he said.
The Americans had trace elements in their bombs and they could
determine from the type of residue whether they were a hydrogen
bomb or an atom bomb so I suspect that was part of the secret part
of it.
The balloons themselves were huge, reaching up to 100 metres in
diameter.
They carried a 300 kilogram payload of atmospheric testing
instruments to altitudes of more than 30 kilometres well
above the level at which commercial airliners fly.
The payload looked like something straight from the set of an
old Dr Who episode, with visible wires, tubes and funnels all
secured in place with what looked like sticky tape.
The project may technically have been classified top secret, but
plenty of people knew about it in fact, people used to come
and watch the huge balloons being launched.
But it was the data captured high above the ground that was
definitely off limits.
A race to reach the balloons as they
crashed to earth..
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The HIBAL project petered out in the late
1970s as the Americans lost interest in sniffing our air, or found
better ways of keeping tabs on their nuclear
rivals.more https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-09/hibal-australia-cold-war-history-us-secret-balloon-victoria/102057980
Ant56: A good laugh if not so real. Serco on all bases loaded.
The great Aussie dream !!! In forty years, from most affordable housing to most unaffordable in the world, the shackles of debt usury by bankster beasts, the only protected species left in Oz.
I spoke to someone from South Australia yesterday, and they told me about the drones they had seen lift off at dusk. She assumed they were police drones, and said they were massive the size of a small car; and a number of them were patrolling the sky.
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